“Animal Ethics and Evolutionary Psychology—10 Ideas”, 2020-06-15 (; similar):
“Animal Ethics and Evolutionary Psychology” (read the whole chapter here) attempts to untangle some of the evolutionary reasons why we have such inconsistent attitudes towards animals. Below I quote parts of the chapter—for full references, check out the original.
Wolf moms think dog puppies are cuter than wolf pups
Women are more willing than men to let a foreign stranger die for their dog
Animal abuse is common, and there isn’t good evidence that it predicts psychopathy and criminality
Maybe you should “Eat the Whales”
Slaughterhouse workers think the guy who kills the cow, the knocker, has serious psychological problems
Many different polls find that a lot of regular people have pretty extreme views on animal rights
People hate vegetarians more than almost any other group, but they’re more likely to hire them or rent to them than any other group
Across cultures, women nursing animals at the breast is pretty common
Consumers who say they care about animal welfare rarely buy products in accordance with those beliefs
Evolutionary explanations don’t excuse or normalize violence in the animal domain or any other.